We received unprecedented response to the Jetblue post of yesterday, detailing Jetblue’s failure to care for its passengers. Jetblue itself issued the following statement:
“JetBlue apologizes to customers who were impacted by the ice storm at our home base of operations in New York, specifically at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Of the 505 daily flights operated by JetBlue, more than 250 flights were cancelled, and approximately 10 flights were significantly delayed at JFK with customers on board. These flights were a combination of scheduled departures from JFK that were not able to take off due to the ever-changing weather conditions, and arrivals that we were unable to move to a gate within a reasonable amount of time, due to all gates being occupied. This resulted in unacceptable delays for our customers. JetBlue sincerely apologizes to all customers impacted by today’s weather and will be issuing a full refund and a free roundtrip flight to customers delayed onboard any aircraft in excess of three hours. JetBlue’s customer commitment team will be contacting these customers as soon as possible.”
Now, American, when it had a similar incident in December, jumped on the only realistic thing it could do…make sure it didn’t happen again. As we mentioned yesterday, they are doing this…investing the money in improving their procedures.
We received a variety of comments. ‘bob’ suggested anyone having to sit on a plane for more than an hour is cruel and unusual punishment. While some may suggest spending time on an airplane is cruel and unusual…most flights exceed one hour. At two hours, it fails to be an act of kidnapping…more an act of unjust imprisonment and negligence.
‘Brad’ asked the good question of why Jetblue did not inform the Port Authority. The answer is twofold: One, they had no gate to put the plane to. Two, they maintained some form of mistaken optimism the plane would go. From their perspective…every plane that does not go is 150 people who do not get to where they want to be is a failure…not only a failure but a financial liability…as the plane is not positioned for its next flight…and thus that flight must be cancelled, producing a domino effect.
By the time Jetblue had given up…it was too late for the passengers onboard. We’ll never know if any Jetblue customer service agents, cabin crew, or captains actually spoke up for them…advising their superiors of the situation. As Charles Reed pointed out, this failure is not limited to Jetblue.
We agree with him that passengers should unite together and demand the airline do something. There is also the airport authority. GMoney raised a good point. If there are planes sitting out there waiting for a gate, why didn’t the Port Authority, which runs JFK, take the initiative and do something? It is possible they themselves didn’t realize how long the planes were out there. They have no procedure in place except to bring the buses when the airline tells them they are needed.
We have no intention of being seen as an airline apologist. Many things airlines do we disapprove of. If the passengers had banded together and demanded to be offloaded, perhaps the pilots and the flight crew would have been more aggressive in their calls to get assistance…perhaps even bypassing Jetblue operations to demand the buses directly from airport authorities. But the passengers are not at fault. The airline is at fault for not dealing with a problem.
But we still think Jetblue is a good airline. Why? Because of their consistent service in our experience. If they fail to rectify this blot on their record, then we will have nothing but criticism for them.
Finally, most people feel deregulation was a good thing. The government fixed pricing, route allocation, etc. Deregulation has lowered fares…and also led many airlines into bankruptcy. If the government is to get involved, it should link denied boarding compensation(unaltered since deregulation) to inflation at the least. It should consider reviewing baggage handling and how airlines are allowed to treat passengers. Too much regulation is bad…but reasonable minimums can be good…More to come…